From this issue the following changes have been applied to the composition of the Least Developed Countries, Developing Countries, and OPEC country groupings:

South Sudan is included in the Least Developed Countries and Developing Countries groupings on advice from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. These changes impact on statistics in table 14 of this publication and time series spreadsheet tables 14a, 14b, 36a – 36j and 37a – 37i. The new composition applies to the whole time series. Time series IDs remain the same.

The OPEC country grouping has been amended to include Angola and Ecuador and exclude Gabon, Indonesia and Niger to match current membership. The OPEC group includes Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Time series spreadsheet tables and table 14 in this publication do not include the OPEC country group and are not affected. International merchandise trade data available on request including the OPEC country group is affected. The new composition applies to the whole time series.